Safety background for checks or other documents



Aug., 26 i924.

a. M. WEEKS SAFETY BACKGROUND FOR CHECKS 0R OTHER DOCUMENTS 1922 2 Shams-Sheet 2 Filed April 15 Patented Aug., 26, w24,

EDWMD M. WEEKS, 0F WASHDTGTON, BSTRTLCT Ol CLUMI.

SAFETY BAGKGRUUND FOR CHECKS @R @WEER DMENTS.

lllpplicaticm le April l5, i923. Serial No. 552,531.

To all 'whom il? may cio/acera:

Be it known that l, EDWARD M. WEEKS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Washington, in the District of Columbia., have invented certain new and useful lmprovements in Safety Backgrounds for Checks or @ther Documents; and l do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such. as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same,

My invention relates to bills of exchange and commercial papers such as bank-checks, drafts, notes and other negotiable instruments, also to bonds, stock certificates and all documents of an exacting character, wherein means for preventing or detecting alterations is desirable or important.

More articularly stated, this invention consists in the production of a safety base or background of paper, parchment or any other suitable material, adapted to be overprinted nd overwritten, for uses such as aforesaid, and characterized by a safety tint, the latter produced by a multiplicity of relatively inconspicuous or subdued parallel stripes or lines, either waving in form or straight, of graduated width, printed, engraved or otherwise applied in two or more alternating blending and contrasting colors upon one or both sides of the paper as will hereinafter more fully appear.

ln the accompanying drawings which form, part of this application for Letters- Patent, and whereon like numerals indicate corresponding parts in the several illustrations l Figure l is a top plan diagrammatic view of my invention as applied to a strip of paper suitable for use as a bank-check by way of exemplication;

liigure 2 is also a diagrammatic view showing a set of printing rolls as onemeans by which the surface conguration represented by Figure l may be produced;

Figures 3 and d are each relatively enlarged fragmentary views of complementary printing rolls suitably inked in colors for printing their respective portions of 'the completed product shown in Figure l;

Figure 5 is also an enlarged fragmentary view showing part of a printing or offsetting roll to which has been transferred suitable color stripes in proper alinement and register from the rolls of Figures 3 and a respectively; and

Figure t3 is a `fragmentary view in plan showing one oitv various repeat designs which may be substituted for the legend appearing in Figure l.

Reference being had to the drawings and characters thereon, the numeral 10 indicates the bod of a bank-check, which may be formed in ividually, or in pages as usual, with or without stubs, preparatory to being over-printed by the customary formal matter, and later filled in for use as a check or other document. 'lhe surface of body l0 is configured and tinted by a multi licityof individual, light parallel lines, w ich may be curved, straight, or of any conventional form, and continuous from side to side of the blank, but varying in color and may include a legend or design such as .indicated by Figures Il and t,

ln practicing the present invention-it is quite immaterial as to what contrasting colors are employed-to produce the tinted background aforesaid, except that the colors should blend and should be repeated successively from end to end, or side to side, of the form. lin thc present illustrations by way of exemplilication, the colors red, blue an green areindicated according to the Patent @ffice Rules of Practice color chart,

ln Figure l of the drawings the individual parallel colored lines aforesaid, forining the tinted background or safety base of a blank for bank checks and the like, are of wavering form, they cross said blank from side to side, are of comparatively subdued intensity, and by a novel process are caused to produce in a contrasting dat color some inserted insignia such as the letters E M W of Figure l, or an emblem such as shown by Figure 6, repeated more or less throughout the entire blank.

The subdued background such as aforesaid is produced according to the present invention, by printing either from a flat press or a cylinder press, but preferably from the latter represented diagrammatically by Figure 2 of the drawings, wherein the nurnerals ll and 11', 12 and 12 represent inking rolls, 13 and 13 line reproducin rolls, and the numeral lll indicates the o setting or al printing roll.

ln the color scheme herein illustrated by way yof exemplification, the said rolls l1 and ll are red and blue inking rolls respectively, of c lindrical form, each having the letters E W as in Figure l, or some other legend as in Figure 6 of the drawings, depressed therein to produce at suitable points noninking areas.,

ln the present color scheme also, the complementary rolls l2 and l2 respectively, are provided with raised inking letters E M W as in yFigure l, or some other legend as in Figure 6, registering accurately with the corresponding depressions aforesaid in the surfaces ci rolls l1 and 11,or purposes which will later appear. i

ln direct contact with the inking rollsll Vand 12 is a reproducing roll 13, lined circuniferentially and from end to end as indicated by Figure 3 of the drawings; while in like relation to the inking rolls 1l and 12 is a second reproducing roll 13 lined as indicated by Figure l or the drawings.

'lhese rolls 13 and 13 are capable 'of printing or reproducing directly upon a check-blank or other surface, the desired safety base, but as indicated by Figure 2, they are preferably arranged and adapted to bear directly upon a final odsetting or printing roll ld, to which, when properly inked, they impart in accurate alinement and register, the combined surfaces of Figures 3 and d as shown collectively by ligure 5, ready for the final imprint.

During this process, the line rolls i3 and 13' are inked from the red and blue rolls ll and ll', respectively, except where met by the non-inlring areas or voids of the said inkin rolls ll and l1', these uninked portions being supplied however with green ink from the raised letters or other legend, of rolls l2 and l2', respectively, in the well un derstood manner of color printin 'lhus it will be observed in t e present typical selection of colors, reading trono lett to right of enlarged Figure 5, that the parallel composite lines l5, whether upon the offsetting roll ld or the finished product ol a safety tinted background l0, are ol? uniforni width, but made up from the individm ual lines l5 and l5 ol Figures 3 and l respectively, in the following. proportions, viz: 2/6 red and blue; l/G red and 5/6 blue; solid blue; l/ti red and 5/6 blue; 2/6 red and 4,/6 blue; 3/6 red and 3/6 blue; d/ red and 2/6 blue, this latter and certain sueceeding lines includin also solid green color lo in like proportions, and applied in perfect register, trono the green rolls l2 and nooonae l2' aforesaid, as a means vor" producing the inserted letters 16 oil Figure 1, or other insignia 16 in a solid contrasting but subdued color. Continuing romleft to right in the arrangement illustrated, the proportions shown are 5 6 red and 1/6 blue; solid red; 5 /6 red and 1./6 blue; 4/6 red and 2/6 blue; 3/6 red and 3/6 blue; 2/6 red and Ll/( blue; 1/6 red and 5/6 blue; solid blue; 1/6 red and 5/6 blue; 2/6 red and i/6 blue, and so on throughout the entire blank.

@bviously the proportions and colors above indicated are merely one example of how the present invention maybe carried out, it being entirely within the spirit of this invention to vary both the number and variety of colors employed, as also the graduation thereof indefinitely, provided they combine to reduce a relatively inconspicuous or sub ucd safety tint or background, made up of a multiplicity of individual and alternatingstripes or lines of contrastin colors and graduated Widths, so positioned and arranged as to blend one into the other at definite intervals from end to end, or side to side, of the blank, and when desired to produce in addition a within contained insert et appropriate letters or other insignia, ot a contrasting color or colors, but in exact register with the lines l5, and made up by a continuation of said lines, or independent thereof.

Having thus described my invention, and one method by which it may be practiced, what .l now claim and desire to secure by Letters-Patent is:

l. A safety base for bank checks and other documents c aracterized by a series of color bands successively' blending into each other and produced by a multiplicity of independent parallel lines of graduated width.

2, A safety base for bank checks and otherr documents characterized by a series ot color bands successively blending into each other and produced by a multiplicity oil independ-1 ent parallel lines of unilorrn width nach formed by a plurality ol contacting lines of graduated widthe 3. A. salet.' base lor bank checks and other documents c Aaracterized by a series of color bands successively blending into each other produced by a multiplicity oit independent parallel lines, and a legend insert termed by a continuation. ci the same lines in a contrasting color.

e. The rnetbod oiE producing a tinted safety background banlr cheeks and other documents consists applying colored lines to such background as to pro duce a unilorna variation colors at dednite repeated intervals.

5. The method of producing safety background for bank checks and other docurnents which consists applying to said background a plurality of parallel lines o lil@ llO

i 1,5oe144 3 graduated width and contrasting colors so peated intervals and at the same time a legas to produce a uniform variation of color end insert in a contrasting Hat color. 10 at definite repeated intervals. In testimony whereof I aix my signature, 6. The method of producing atinted safety in presence of two Subscribing witnesses. l 5 background for bank checks and other doc- EDWARD M. WEEKS.

uments which consists in so applying colored Witnesses: lines tovsuch background as to produce a JAMES H. MARR,

uniform variation of colors at definite re- WM. E. DYRE. 

